Chaguanas West MP Jack Warner says he won’t be destroyed by FIFA boss Sepp Blatter. He was speaking with reporters yesterday when he distributed over $220,000 in self-help housing grants to needy people in his constituency.
Yesterday, the Guardian carried a report that FIFA will take legal steps to recover the ownership of the US$25.5 million Joao Havelange Centre of Excellence, which football’s world governing body claims to have funded.
The issue was raised during Concacaf elections, the regional football body, which saw Cayman Islands’ Jeffrey Webb voted in at the congress held in Budapest, Hungary, on Wednesday.
An AP report said on Friday that Blatter has since cited a problem in salvaging the Macoya property, which was allegedly signed over to former Concacaf president and FIFA vice-president Jack Warner’s family business. FIFA has started legal action against the former FIFA VP.
Warner said he does not own the Centre of Excellence. He said, “They have all the records, they can check it and see who owns it and who doesn’t own it, what they have paid and what they haven’t paid. “What I do know is that I don’t own it, so what is all the fuss about?
“For over one year Blatter and his minions are trying their utmost to destroy me and I would not in anyway be remotely perturbed by the foolishness taking place in FIFA.
“Blatter believes that he is a god and no one should oppose him at anytime and once you oppose him you pay the ultimate price. “I will be the exception and I wish to advise him and his cohorts that in no way he can tarnish my image.”
RELATED NEWS
Who owns Centre of Excellence?
By Ian Prescott (T&T Express)
Football's governing body FIFA says Trinidad and Tobago Works Minister Jack Warner owns the Dr Joao Havelange Centre of Excellence at Macoya and Warner counters that it belongs to the Caribbean Football Union (CFU), of which he is a former president.
So, who actually owns the CONCACAF Centre of Excellence?
Ex-FIFA vice-president Warner has denied reports that he is owner of the sporting complex, which is the home base of Warner's Joe Public Football Club.
News coming out of the FIFA congress in Budapest, Hungary last week is that the Centre of Excellence was signed over to Warner's family businesses
CONCACAF, which governs football in North and Central America and the Caribbean, held its congress in Budapest, where newly-elected president, Cayman Islander Jeffrey Webb, raised irregularities revolving around the ownership of the Centre of Excellence, which was built using FIFA money.
Further, CONCACAF said it had begun legal steps to recover the facility from Warner, who resigned last year as CONCACAF president and FIFA vice-president amidst a bribery scandal involving alleged bribes-for-votes among CFU officials for FIFA presidential candidate Mohamed bin Hammam, who was expelled from his FIFA post in the wake of the scandal.
It was alleged that Warner got an unauthorised mortgage on the Macoya property in 2007. And FIFA is joining legal action to regain ownership of the $22.5 million training centre that it paid for.
FIFA president Sepp Blatter said at a news conference on Friday this is "now a problem that we are going to tackle".
However, speaking on CNC3 on Friday night, Warner claimed that he has a letter which proved that the CONCACAF Centre of Excellence was a gift from Brazilian-born former FIFA president Joao Havelange (1974-1998) to the Caribbean Football Union. Warner further accused CONCACAF'S new leaders of trying to gain popularity at his expense and felt he should be judged by the development he brought to CONCACAF.
"When I became president of CONCACAF I was given a table, two chairs and $40,000," Warner told CNC3. "When I resigned there was $37 million in the bank, three offices, and a host of real estate."
The sporting complex at the centre of the issue was built in Macoya and is a state-of-the-art training and learning facility for use by CONCACAF members. It includes a stadium with 6,000 seats, a full-sized practice field, two mini-fields, an indoor field and a 50-bed residence. Additional facilities include a gymnasium, sports medicine department, swimming pool, auditorium, library and recreational areas.
The complex was named the Dr Joao Havelange Centre of Excellence in honour of the former FIFA president. The Centre is a flexible, multi-purpose facility capable of hosting a range of functions and events. In fact, the complex has staged everything from live television broadcasts of international football matches to weddings, birthday parties, concerts and political rallies.